For years, the United States and its European allies have been fighting in Syria alongside members of the Syrian branch of the PKK, the YPG. In spite of the PKK being listed by Washington and Brussels as a terror group, somehow its Syrian branch has become a "partner" of western governments in their increasingly aimless intervention in Syria.

Because of this, many were surprised when a retired British soldier James Matthews was arrested after he flew to the Middle East of his own volition in order to fight alongside the YPG/PKK in Syria. While initially arrested "for purposes connected to the commission of preparation of terrorism", all charges against him have now been dropped in spite of the PKK remaining on the UK's list of proscribed terror organisations. According to the court which freed Matthews, his release was based on "evidential grounds".

The entire matter demonstrates a doubly hypocritical attitude on behalf of the UK government. First of all, it appears logically ludicrous to arrest a man for effectively volunteering for what NATO soldiers in Syria are already doing: fighting with and aiding the YPG/PKK. Secondly, the case reveals a clear case of double-standards as a man who fought with the proscribed PKK is now free while another UK man called Benjamin Stimson remains in prison for volunteering to aid the Donetsk People's Republic whose armed forces are not classified as a terror group by the UK or European Union.

Britain's latest twist in logical acrobatics is indicative of a wide trend across Europe where the horrifying crimes of the PKK and its offshoots are either dismissed or ignored. Since the beginning of March of 2018, over 42 PKK inspired attacks against Turks have taken place on German soil while the German government continues to feed domestic violence through a foreign policy of overt Turkophobia. This year, mosques frequented not just by Turks but other Muslims have been firebombed in Germany while Turkish owned shops have been attacked throughout the central European nation.

On the whole, the PKK's war against Turkey has cost the lives of 40,000 people including thousands of civilians. As the PKK has violated numerous ceasefire deals, the death toll from PKK attacks continues to rise. Not only have the PKK waged war against Turks, but they have waged a brutal war against Turkish citizens of Kurdish origin who fail to comply with the blackmail techniques that the PKK employ in areas where they seek to attain control through the use of brute force. A new documentary on the mafioso/terrorist tactics of the extremist PKK by TRT World helps shed light on the violent, coercive and illegal acts that the terrorist group commits both against Turks and against the Kurdish communities they claim to kill for.

In recent years, the PKK's Syrian branch YPG has employed many of these same techniques in the service of a brutal ethnic cleansing campaign against the Arab and non-Kurdish minority populations in areas of northern Syria where a YPG/PKK occupation has supplanted an illegal Daesh occupation.

Much of north eastern Syria, including the city of al-Raqqa was once ruled by the outlawed terrorist organisation Daesh. Today these areas are occupied by the United States and their radical Kurdish terrorist allies in the YPG/PKK. Here, I encourage the reader to re-read Andrew Kroybko's dire warning of what was to come for the Sunni Arab populations of Syria's north-east in a piece written during the Battle for Raqqa in which the geopolitical expert predicted much of what has since transpired in the region.

While Daesh made life hell for all, including the vast majority of moderate Sunni Arabs of north eastern Syria, under the radical Kurdish YPG/PKK terror groups who are in charge of the day-to-day life in most areas of the illegal US occupation, the Sunni Arab majority is not only suppressed but they are shunned. Since riding on the coattails of US hegemonic power in north eastern Syria, Kurdish YPG/PKK extremists have illegally seized Arab property and fought Arab tribes and families trying to return to their land, they have changed the names of streets, villages and even towns from their ancient Arab names to Kurdish names. In areas like Manbij and elsewhere where the YPG/PKK run schools, the textbooks are now filled with anti-Arab racism, as are the regional political manifestos while basic goods like food and clean water are scarce in areas occupied by the YPG/PKK with Arabs and non-Kurdish minorities often paying double the prices of ethnic Kurds and triple the prices of members of the YPG/PKK.

It must be reiterated that in the areas where the YPG and PKK have taken over from Daesh as the de-facto illegal terrorist occupier, the majority of people are Arab Sunnis, there are significant minority groups including Armenian Christians, Assyrians and Circassians -- all of whom are equally victimised by the YPG/PKK as are Kurdish families who refuse to support their terrorist occupiers.

A true war against terrorism is a war against all terrorism without any exceptions. The notion that "one man's terrorist is another man's freedom fighter" is as absurd as saying that one group of child rapists or one group of drug traffickers is somehow acceptable while another is not. Fighting terror can only be achieved if all responsible nations develop and implement a zero-tolerance policy for terrorism across the board. Until the US and Europe become firm in disassociating themselves from the PKK in all its forms, innocent lives throughout multiple nations will remain at risk.